HOW TO USE THE MAPS

INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW

Most people use the Property Appraiser's Plat Maps in one of two ways:

1. They have a parcel number and they want to know more about where the parcel is
2. They've found a parcel on the maps and they need to know the parcel number

The maps are named and indexed based on the basic divisions of land in Indian River County, and parcel numbers are assigned based on the division of land. This process started years ago, and over time the rules have evolved. To use the maps for these two tasks, you need to know something about the division of land and about the rules we follow in assigning parcel numbers.

About the Subdivision of Land
Land can be divided and described in a variety of ways. The three most common in Indian River County are:

1. The Public Land Survey System (PLSS)
2. Metes and Bounds
3. Subdivisions or Plats

Geographic Clues in the Parcel Number
In many counties, the parcel number has within it a clue to the parcel's location. In Indian River County, we use the section, township and range as the first six positions of the parcel number, which often gets you to the correct 1" = 400' scale map in areas that follow the rules of the PLSS. But it doesn't work so well in the Fleming Grant, which was excluded from the PLSS because the land belonged to a private entity when the rest of Florida was conveyed to the United States. And it doesn't work so well in the four Townships that were subdivided by Fellsmere Farms before the land was broken down into sections. And it doesn't work so well for subdivisions that cross section, township or range lines.

Using the Maps
Remember those two tasks:

1. you have a parcel number and you want to know where the parcel is
2. you've found a parcel on the map and you need to know the parcel number

To use the maps for either of those two tasks, you must use the clues to parcel location built into our parcel numbers, and you must understand how things are represented on the map. With the many exceptions that have come into existence over the years, this may not be enough. We are working on other ways that may help, but for now familiarity with rules and exceptions are your best chance. There are, however, a number of things on the maps that can help:

• the list of subdivision subheaders on the sidebar
• in-map annotations
• subdivision labels (in gray)
• block number and block letter annotations, in black Times Roman
• parcel labels
• the map number and compilation date
• map symbols and text styles
• the aerial photo reference

There's other useful information too:

• commercial street indexes and street maps, which show section, township and range
• subdivision lists showing subheader, subdivision name, and plat book and page, in alphabetical or numerical order

You Can Help Make the Maps Better
If you see something on the map that is incorrect, or if you don't see something on the map that would make it more useful, please let us know. We appreciate general suggestions, but often specific comments can be implemented immediately while the general ones have to be evaluated for all 1,100 mapsheets. You can e-mail us at prop-appraiser@indian-river.fl.us.

ABOUT THE SUBDIVISION OF LAND

Land can be divided and described in a variety of ways. The three most common in Indian River County are:

• The Public Land Survey System
• Metes and Bounds descriptions
• Subdivisions or Plats

The Public Land Survey System (PLSS)
The term Public Land Survey System, or PLSS, refers to the survey system invented by Thomas Jefferson and used throughout most of the United States as the original division of land. As the United States expanded its boundaries through purchase and conquest, most of the new land became public property. Primarily during the 1800s, land was surveyed and identified in terms of section, township, range and aliquot part.

Sometimes described as the rectangular survey system, the PLSS first surveyed a 6-mile grid, where the east-west lines are township lines and the north-south lines are range lines. The 36 square miles within each grid cell is called a Township. Here in Indian River County, most of our land is within Townships 31S, 32S, and 33S, although the County extends into Township 30S east of the Sebastian River. The Ranges are 35E through 40E. The S and E signify that the Townships lie south and east of the initial point of the Florida PLSS, which is located in Tallahassee.

Each 36-square-mile Township is further divided into 36 one-square-mile Sections, which are numbered in a serpentine fashion starting in the northeast corner of the Township. Divisions of the sections were done in aliquot (i.e. equal) parts, such as: the southeast 1/4 of Section 1, or the north half of Section 6. Since a square mile is exactly 640 acres, a quarter section would be 160 acres, a quarter quarter section would be 40 acres, and a quarter of that would be 10 acres.

The official procedures outlined for the PLSS allowed for irregular parcels of land that sometimes occur because of the way the surveys were done, or because of survey errors, or when "bodies of water or metes and bounds claims intrude on the regular rectangular divisions." These irregular parcels are called Government Lots.

So that's the theory. In actuality, Townships are not exactly six miles on a side, and sections are hardly ever exactly 5280' x 5280' to make a square mile. To complicate matters further, people have used a variety of ways of describing property. For example, rather than saying: the west half of the west half of the NE quarter of the NE quarter of Section 1, they might say: the west 10 acres of the NE quarter of the NE quarter of Section 1. Theoretically, these descriptions are the same, but if Section 1 turns out to be more or less than 5280' by 5280' then the amount of land described will be different in each case.

Metes and Bounds
The expression metes and bounds refers to the description of land by metes, i.e. measurements, and bounds, which refers to what is on the boundary. The measurements generally used for land descriptions are distance and direction, although there's a lot of variation in how that's done. Typically, the description starts at a known point, such as a section corner, and proceeds to a point of beginning (POB). From the POB, the description gives direction and distance: thence north 150' thence east 50' thence south 150' thence west 50'. Modern descriptions generally give bearings, such as N 50 degrees W.

A bounding description might run: north along the east boundary of property owned by Brown, thence east along the south boundary of property owned by Smith, thence south along the Indian River, thence west along the northern right-of-way of Wabasso Road. Although modern descriptions don't usually refer to property ownership, they may still use right-of-way and natural features as bounds.

Subdivisions and Plats
As communities began to take control of development, they generally passed subdivision ordinances. In Florida, there are certain requirements for subdivisions. In terms of land descriptions, the boundary of the subdivision is typically given in metes and bounds, and the internal divisions of land are described and illustrated on a plat, which numbers blocks and lots, names streets, and gives dimensions and relationships. Once the plat is approved and recorded, the land can be described in terms of lot and block, such as Lot 1, Block 4, Rosewood Subdivision, Indian River County Plat Book (PBI) 14-89.

THE GENERAL RULES
FOR PARCEL NUMBER ASSIGNMENT

The parcel number consists of 22 digits. The term subheader refers to the first eleven digits in the parcel number.

Assigning Parcel Numbers to Metes and Bounds and Aliquot Part Parcels
In general, metes and bounds tracts and aliquot parts are assigned a parcel number in this way:

• The section, township and range are the first six characters
• The next five characters are 00000
• The next four characters are assigned based on the government lot or quarter section in which the parcel is located: The government lot will be in the block position, offset one character to the left. For example: Government Lot 3 will have a block number of 0030. For quarter sections, the block number will be 1000 in the NE quarter, 3000 in the NW quarter, 5000 in the SW quarter and 7000 in the SE quarter.
• The next five characters are assigned in numerical order as land is "cut out" of the quarter section.
• The character after the decimal is used to signify a "cut out" from a parcel that was already "cut out" of the section. The original number stays with the portion of the parcel on which the main structure rests, if there is one.

Assigning Parcel Numbers to Subdivision Lots and Tracts
In general, subdivisions are "assessed in" the section in which their Point of Beginning (POB) lies. Most of the time, subdivisions lie entirely within a single section, so it's pretty easy to get to the right map if you have just the parcel number, and to get the parcel number from the map. There are, however, significant exceptions -- at least 24 subdivision numbers are used in Sebastian Highlands, and they wind in and out of sections with abandon.

So the first six characters of the parcel number of a lot in a subdivision are the section, township and range where the POB of the subdivision lies. The next five are a subdivision number that is assigned sequentially within that particular section. If a map or a subdivision spans a section line, it is possible to have two 00003s on a map, each "assessed in" a different section.

The next four characters are the block number: all zeros mean that the block is not lettered or numbered. If the blocks are numbered, however, the number is used in the block position, but it is offset to the left by one character, so that Block 1 is 0010 and block 20 is 0200. If the blocks are lettered, the block number is the order of the letter in the alphabet, with no offset. For example: Block A is 0001, Block B is 0002, etc. However, this rule has not been followed consistently over time, and there are many cases where a lettered block is offset (i.e. Block A is 0010).

The next seven characters represent the lot number. If a parcel encompasses all or part of more than one lot, then the lowest lot number will be used. If the lot number is already assigned to another parcel, then the position after the decimal will be used to make the number unique.

More and more subdivisions are setting aside landscape buffers, stormwater tracts and other pieces of land. We are still refining our policy regarding the numbering of these parcels, but if they are numbered, they often have 00000 after the block number, with a unique number after the decimal.

THE EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULES
FOR PARCEL NUMBER ASSIGNMENT

How Parcel Numbers Are Assigned in the Fleming Grant
Since the Fleming Grant was not included in the rectangular survey, there are, technically, no sections there. This may be the most difficult area in the County in which to locate a parcel number. The Fleming Grant Plat, recorded in the late 1800's, broke the area down into "sections" and lots. These did not follow the PLSS survey rules, although some of the same terms were used. The subheader (i.e. the first 11 digits of the parcel numbers) for the Fleming Grant Plat is 00-30-38-00001. Over time, parcels were split out or subdivided, and some were assessed in the section, meaning that the parcel number begins with the "section" number shown on the plat, as in Mapsheet 01.07, Section 21 Fleming Grant. Sometimes, the "section" was put in the block position, as in Mapsheet 01.19, Section 27 Fleming Grant. Over time, the variations in rules have made it difficult to predict just what a the subheader of a parcel in the Fleming Grant will be.

How Parcel Numbers Are Assigned in Fellsmere Farms
Fellsmere Farms is a platted subdivision covering four Townships: 31S-36E, 31S-37E, 32S-36E, and 32S-37E. All of the parcels in these townships were assigned parcel numbers that begin with 00 followed by the township and range, followed by 00001. The block position carries the tract number -- no offset here.

Even though Fellsmere Farms was never broken out into sections, we still show one square mile on a 1" = 400' mapsheet. The mapsheets have been assigned page numbers that run, not in the serpentine fashion used for section numbering, but from left to right starting in the upper left corner of the Township, except for 31S-36E. Probably because of an error in the original PLSS survey, Township 31S Range 36E is significantly wider than 6 miles. To show the land along the western border to scale, maps were laid out north to south, pages 1 through 6. Then, starting with page 7, the page numbers run from left to right.

How Parcel Numbers Are Assigned in Indian River Farms
Indian River Farms is a platted subdivision covering portions of Townships 32S-39E, 33S-38E, and 33S-39E. Unlike Fellsmere Farms, Indian River Farms was broken out into sections under the PLSS. Within Indian River Farms, the parcels were originally assigned a parcel number starting with the section, township and range, followed by 00001. The tract number is shown in the block position, offset to the left by one character. For example, Indian River Farms Tract 120 will have a block number of 1200.

How Parcel Numbers Are Assigned to Condominiums
Usually, the maps show only the subdivision label on condominium parcels, although we will show more information as label or text if the case is confusing and if we can fit the information on the map. The parcel numbering of condominiums varies a great deal depending on the configuration and numbering of the units and buildings.